Operation "Heritage": what will happen to sports facilities after the World Cup

The preservation and effective use of stadiums built for the World Cup in 2018, will cost the budget more than 16 billion rubles. How is it planned to make the arenas of the World Cup payback and in demand.

On the presidential council for physical culture and sports, held on Friday, July 20, in Kaliningrad, the "World Heritage Football Heritage Concept" was prepared, prepared by the Ministry of Sport together with the heads of the regions where the world championship matches were held. Stadiums, according to the authors of the document, should reach the payback by 2023 and become the basis for the development of football in Russia. RBC got acquainted with the text of the concept, which the government should now approve, and figured out how to use the sports infrastructure to develop Russian football as a whole.

Why the concept of heritage is needed

Even before the construction of most stadiums for the World Cup 2018, the government instructed the Ministry of Sport to develop the concept of the World Heritage "to ensure the effective use of sports facilities in the post-competition period, taking into account the needs of the regions and the positive experience of the Universiade program in Kazan in 2013 and the Games in Sochi in 2014" .

Development of the concept of the heritage began because of fears that after the end of the world championship, the new stadiums and training fields, for the construction of which the total spent 149 billion rubles., Will be unclaimed: either they will be abandoned or they will cause a regular loss to the owner.

"We must pass stadiums to clubs; if the clubs are of low power, management companies will be established. We will think about taxation. Stadiums should not be "white elephants", - said before the start of the 2018 World Cup, Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Mutko.

After the 2010 World Cup in South Africa and 2014 in Brazil, the "white elephants" were called expensive stadiums that turned out to be de facto unclaimed after the championship as sports facilities. Due to the lack of strong clubs capable of collecting tens of thousands of spectators, some stadiums hosting World Cup matches in these countries are used as offices for officials, schools, parking for municipal public transport, etc. One of the best-known examples is the Manu Garrincha National Stadium in the Brazilian capital, Brasilia. The construction of a giant arena for 72 thousand spectators for the World Cup 2014 cost the budget of $ 900 million, which became a record for the country. However, after the championship ended, the stadium was actually abandoned: the local club plays in the fourth strongest Brazilian division, collecting on games no more than 2 thousand spectators. As a result, concerts of rock bands are occasionally held in the arena, some departments of the mayoralty of the city moved to podtribunnye premises, and the paved area was used as a car park.

What exactly fell into the concept of heritage

All 12 stadiums involved in the 2018 World Cup, as well as 95 training fields built or reconstructed for the world championship were included in the concept of heritage.

From the 12 stadiums of the World Cup 2018, the management of seven arenas built directly for the World Cup will receive federal budget funds under the heritage program: in Volgograd, Kaliningrad, Rostov-on-Don, Saransk, Samara, Yekaterinburg and Nizhny Novgorod. All these stadiums were built with the federal budget and are on the balance sheet of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise "Sport-Engineering", which reports directly to the Ministry of Sport.

Five other arenas - "Luzhniki" and "Spartak" in Moscow, as well as stadiums "Fisht" in Sochi, "St. Petersburg" and "Kazan Arena" - were built before the World Cup. Four of them belong to the regional authorities, and Spartak to the private company of Spartak Stadium, billionaire Leonid Fedun.

In these stadiums, as follows from the concept, management models have already been defined, management companies have been appointed, sources of financing for maintenance and operation have been found for them and the necessary funds have been allocated, "including through extrabudgetary sources and budgets of constituent entities of the Russian Federation." The owners of these arenas will not receive funding from the federal budget as part of the heritage program. At the same time, the concept contains recommendations to release the organization's stadium managers from the property tax and land tax. Tax benefits should be worked out by regional authorities.

During the meeting of the presidential council, the president of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov proposed to allow the sale of beer in the stadiums during the domestic Russian competitions. During the World Cup 2018, the ban on beer trade in sports arenas operating in Russia was temporarily lifted. This was due to the fact that one of the largest sponsors of FIFA is the world's largest beer producer - the company AB InBev.

The Minister of Sports Pavel Kolobkov offered to use the fan's passport (FAN ID) during the games of the championship and the Russian Football Cup. FAN ID - a personal electronic document with a photo, necessary for access to the stadiums, which was used for the first time at competitions in Russia.

The concept of heritage should now be approved by the government. According to the source of RBC in the Ministry of Sport, problems with this should not arise: the document was preliminary agreed with all interested departments. The ministry now expects from the regions detailed business plans for the use of heritage sites. "We will have a business plan for each stadium. This will be one of the conditions for granting subsidies, "Kolobkov said during a meeting of the presidential council.

How will stadiums and training fields be used?

According to the concept, stadiums should mainly be used for their intended purpose - for football matches. At six of the 12 stadiums, the teams of the Russian Premier League (RPL), five clubs from the Football National League (FNL, the second-strongest division), and Luzhniki are used as an arena for the matches of the Russian national team.

At the same time, according to RBC estimates, only two RPL clubs - Zenit and Spartak - receive revenue from the sale of tickets, subscriptions and seats in VIP lodges, which exceeds the amount spent for operating stadiums. These clubs have the highest in the league average attendance of games (44 thousand and 30 thousand spectators respectively in the season 2017/18) and the highest average ticket price. In the case of the rest of the RPL teams, and even more so of the FNL, the operation of modern stadiums results in losses from the matches.

"As the world experience shows, if stadiums are used only for football events, the revenues from their conduct may not be enough to achieve their self-sufficiency," the document stresses. "In this regard, there is a practice of multifunctional use of football stadiums, which provides for their use for cultural and sporting and entertainment events, including regional and city events, as well as the practice of providing stadiums for commercial use."

The concept contains a list of variants of "other commercial use" of stadiums, which is admissible for making a profit when entering self-sufficiency. Stadiums can be used for events for sponsors of football clubs, concerts, festivals and cultural and sports exhibitions, for mass viewing of large sports events on the big screen, city holidays, rallies, amateur sports competitions.

Premises on the territory of the stadium, according to the idea of ​​the authors of the concept, are allowed to lease long-term lease to the enterprises of trade and services "sports and health-oriented", catering enterprises or offices. "But in any case it will be connected with the basic, sporting profile of the structures," said the Minister of Sports Pavel Kolobkov in an interview with RBC. "That is, markets or car washes, as it was in the 1990s, will not be exactly on the territory of the new stadiums."

The development of the program for the commercial use of stadiums is entrusted to the regional authorities, which will take stadiums in their balance in 2019. "At the stadium" Rostov Arena "in addition to the events of the football club" Rostov "- press conferences, meetings with fans, events for sponsors and charitable meetings - it is planned to hold sports competitions, amateur matches, concerts, exhibitions, festivals," - Administration of the Rostov region. It is already known that "Rostov Arena" was rented by the agency "Olympus Concert", which on September 23 will hold a concert of rapper Basta, a native of Rostov-on-Don, at the stadium. Tickets for his performance are already on sale and cost from 2 thousand to 4 thousand rubles.

95 training fields in 25 regions will be transferred to children's football schools. All fields are covered with an artificial covering and are equipped with zones for athletics training. This will cost the budget of 2.8 billion rubles. On the basis of some of these training fields, children's football centers (DFC) will be established - regional football schools with the best coaching staff and funding, which will select the most promising children from all over the region. To create them in the concept allocated 430 million rubles. Specific places where they will be located, will be determined later.

Who will be given the stadiums

The concept envisages the transfer in 2019 of seven stadiums to the balance of the regions where these stadiums are located. The regional authorities themselves should choose the most suitable model for managing sports facilities.

The authors of the document offer four basic scenarios. Local authorities themselves can manage the stadium through their subsidiary, taking over all costs and receiving all income from operating activities. In this case, the clubs performing at the stadium, rent it for every home match from the management company. Under this scheme, the owners of Luzhniki (Moscow), Kazan Arenas (the government of Tatarstan), Fishta (the administration of the Krasnodar Territory) work.

The second scenario involves transferring some of the functions that are not related to sporting events to outsourcing to profile organizations. Another option is to conclude a concession agreement with a third-party organization that receives the stadium, in effect, in full leasing. A similar model was implemented in St. Petersburg, where the stadium owned by the city was transferred to long-term lease to the subsidiary structure of FC Zenit. During the meeting of the State Council for Physical Culture and Sports, the governor of the Rostov region Vasily Golubev stated that Rostov Arena would be transferred to the management of FC Rostov. And, finally, a scheme is possible in which the stadium is transferred to the management of the federal structure.

Speaking at a meeting of the Council for Physical Culture and Sports, Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed the opinion that stadium management should be transferred directly to football clubs that will host their home matches on them. "Ideally - that the club was the owner and that he would do all this: he rented out the lease, and developed commercial activities. That's when the sense will be, then football will develop. Otherwise, expensive things will be for football, and it will be in our grave condition, "Putin said.

What exactly will the budget money in the program

The costs for the seven stadiums of the 2018 World Cup planned for the implementation of the heritage program are divided into two sections: the adaptation of stadiums to work in the legacy mode and the compensation of operating costs until 2023 inclusive.

Under the adaptation of stadiums to work in the heritage mode, we mean the equipment of arenas with advertising LED panels around the perimeter of the field, which can be used to display advertisements, the construction of partitions separating the guest sectors, and the purchase of a cover protecting the grass field during the stadium concerts, rallies, etc. For all these purposes will be allocated for 70.8 million rubles. In addition to this allocated 500 million rubles. to dismantle the upper sectors of the stadium in Yekaterinburg, who spoke during the World Cup for the perimeter of the arena.

The second item of federal budget expenditures will be compensation for new owners of costs for stadiums. In 2019, 100% of operating costs will be compensated, from 2020 to 2023 - 95%. On average, the annual cost of operating one stadium is estimated at 300 million rubles. In total, 12 billion rubles have been allocated for such subsidies for five years.

The press service of the Rostov region administration RBC confirmed the fairness of the assessment of operating costs. According to the estimates of the Rostov authorities, the content of "Rostov Arena" will cost 330 million rubles. "The most expensive in the maintenance - engineering services, cleaning in the days of matches, care for the lawn," explained the press officer. - In non-match days the staff of the stadium is 115 people. In match days more than 200 people are involved, mostly cleaning personnel. "

Taking into account all expenses for stadiums and training fields, the overall budget of the World Heritage program 2018 will be 16.654 billion rubles.

"In the best case, in the first two years after the World Cup, only Rostov Rostov can go to operating profit in addition to Spartak and St. Petersburg," said Alexander Savraev, Director of Development of Sport Business Consulting, in an interview with RBC. . - Their advantages - the presence of a popular team, the location of cities, the standard of living in the region, the number of people, the existing occupancy and demand for large areas in the region. The most problematic for these indicators are Volgograd Arena, Mordovia Arena and stadiums in Nizhny Novgorod and Kaliningrad. These are cities with a relatively small population (from 315,000 in Saransk to 1.26 million in Nizhny Novgorod), cheap tickets for football and low attendance of matches. "